


Raise The Depths, Collide With The Tide

by FullyRealized (WitchHobi)



Category: ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Brief descriptions of drowning, Dongmyeong don't read this, Improper use of sailing terms, M/M, Mostly just exposition, Near Death Experience, Sailor Dongmyeong, Shipwreck, author sucks at dialogue, merboy Kiwook, mermaid au, this will have a sequel eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 18:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18970936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchHobi/pseuds/FullyRealized
Summary: Dongmyeong found his sea legs before he truly learned to walk. He would argue that the sea raised him, the salty spray peppered his cheeks with sunspots from countless days, hours, weeks, years on the ocean waves in anything from tiny skippers to his own vessel, Sparkling Piece, a wave cutter sailboat that was gifted to him for his sixteenth birthday. His heart swelled with the tides, the sea calling him out into her vast unknowns at every chance.





	Raise The Depths, Collide With The Tide

**Author's Note:**

> Content Warning - Brief, non-graphic descriptions of a near-death experience, almost drowning. 
> 
> Please enjoy this very short unbeta'd blurb where I traumatize one of my favorite onewe boys 
> 
> Dongmyeong don't read this I'm sorry

Dongmyeong found his sea legs before he truly learned to walk. He would argue that the sea raised him, the salty spray peppered his cheeks with sunspots from countless days, hours, weeks, years on the ocean waves in anything from tiny skippers to his own vessel,  _ Sparkling Piece, _ a wave cutter sailboat that was gifted to him for his sixteenth birthday. His heart swelled with the tides, the sea calling him out into her vast unknowns at every chance. Dongmyeong’s pride was to sail, to follow behind his skipper father and his father before him, his soul demanded for him to chase the horizon, even if every evening was punctuated by the same three blinks of blinding light from the lighthouse his family manned, a signal from Dongju that it was time to come in, time to reel his journey back to the shore for one more day, one more hour, one more moment that he wasn’t spending on the water. 

The ocean was his best friend, sure, he had Hyungu, he had Younghoon, all his other friends from school, but nothing fulfilled him like sailing did. Nothing felt as right as being the captain of his own little ship, his own little home in the vast nothingness, the neverending void of the waters below. His boat was his anchor, his heart tethered to the north star and the beam of the lighthouse that always lead him home at the end of the day to warm meals and another familiar question of, “so, find anything new today?” 

That storm, though, was like a betrayal, was worse than any argument he’d ever had, any school drama, any punishment from his mother. For the first time, his sea had turned its back on Dongmyeong. For the first time since his childhood, he was afraid. For the first time, when Dongmyeong cast his eyes back over his shoulder, there were no bursts of light, nothing that signaled his lighthouse, his brother calling him home, he was surrounded by nothing but breaking waves and swirling black clouds overhead. He saw nothing on the radars earlier in the day when he checked as he always did before heading out. He was never so careless. 

Dongmyeong hastily worked the rigging, pulling the sail in a jive in an attempt to avoid a large swell. He was born for this, he knew how to navigate rough waters, but nothing could stop his fingers from shaking as he pulled and slacked the ropes on deck. In the end, there was nothing he could do but hold on, lower his sails and take cover under the small overhang on deck. He shook like a leaf in the winter wind, rope-burned fingers clutching the railing for dear life, begging his sea to spare him. 

The ocean was unforgiving, a brutal force of nature who took no prisoners, and like always, she raged her path forward with no intention of slowing. Like a leaf in the wind Dongmyeong went, his boat swallowed whole and toppled over by a wave so large he distantly thought in the midst of his fear that, wow, his friends would never believe this, before the roar of water filled his ears and he fought the current to break the surface, to suck in what desperate lung-fulls of air he could before the tide pulled him under once again. 

In those moments, Dongmyeong cursed his pride, he cursed his beloved sea, cursed his fear and his struggle as he was battered into half-consciousness, his arms and legs growing tired and his chest aching for breath. He could feel himself fading, feel his body giving up as another wave swallowed him whole and he caught a glimpse of the stars through the cloudy skies.

Dongmyeong was barely awake as he sank, deeper and deeper as breath left his lungs and his vision grew dark, the last thing he saw before losing consciousness being a glint of silver in his periphery, and a swirl of bubbles swirling around his outstretched hand.

 

_ Silence. _

_ Sunlight. _

 

Dongmyeong heaved, the first conscious feeling he had was a burning his in lungs so severe he was sure he’d passed on and woken up in hell. He coughed and coughed, his body shaking and  _ aching  _ so, so badly as he threw up what felt like a lifetime’s amount of saltwater. The world was bright behind his eyelids, that hadn’t found the strength to open yet as he tried to roll onto his belly, raising his chin up off the ground as his body shook with the effort. 

“Ah-ah, wait, don’t try to get up yet,” a voice startled him, making his body freeze before a sound of effort signaled the owner of the voice moving closer. 

“Who’s there?” Dongmyeong croaked, his voice sounded  _ awful,  _ “don’t come closer! Am I dead? Where am I? Why can’t I see?” 

The voice laughed, “try to calm down,” the sound of a splash came next, followed by the voice again, significantly closer this time. “I pulled you out of the water, there was a storm, remember?” 

Dongmyeong felt the world spinning, his whole person shaking with a hearty cocktail of exhaustion and fear, but he managed to find his own face with trembling fingers, his eyelashes were caked with sand and salt and after a moment of rubbing, flicking away the excess, he slowly blinked his tired eyes open to find the sun shining on an unfamiliar beach. Dongmyeong squinted against the light, drawing in a long, deep breath as he scanned his surroundings. He could see the craggy shoreline, looking down, there was the rock he was sprawled across, to his left was his boat, mostly safe in need of what looked like only minor repairs, and finally as he flipped his sore body over he saw a young man looking at him from the edge of his rock, chin propped up on his elbows. 

“Who are you?” Felt like a decent first question, Dongmyeong figured. 

The boy rolled his eyes, large and silver, nearly hidden behind mousy brown hair. “Shouldn’t you be asking about how to get home?”

“I was getting there…” Dongmyeong said, a little bashful, still a little afraid. 

“You can call me Kiwook,” the boy said, “though ‘my hero’ would be nice too.” 

“How did you find me?” Dongmyeong asked, “thank you,  _ thank you,  _ of course, but it was so dark, I was alone, I-.”

“Don’t work yourself up, it’s okay,” Kiwook assured before he shifted, pressing his palms on the rock and lifting himself up, exposing what he’d been hiding the whole time from Dongmyeong. 

As Kiwook sat on the edge of the large slab of rock, he propped a large tail on its surface. Glittering scales of silvers, greens, and blues caught the sunlight like sea glass, his large fin still grazing the water below. 

“When the waters get rough, I usually stay deep,” Kiwook began to explain, offering nothing but a small smile in response to Dongmyeong’s stunned expression. “It’s a large ocean out there, it’s rare I actually come across wrecks, when I do, it’s usually too late. But you were fighting so hard, you just needed a little help, so I brought you here.”

“I-you-, what?” Dongmyeong fought for words, he was usually so good at this. A natural charmer, he had a way with speech, but it was lost on him in his grit-filled throat and his aching lungs. “Merpeople are just a myth, god, shit, I did die, oh god-.”

“I’m not a myth, you’re alive, it’s okay. I figured here would be the safest place to wait for you to wake up,” Kiwook mused, combing his fingers through his hair to reveal more of his face, speckled with the same scales that made up his tail. “Couldn’t just leave you adrift with no way home, now could we?” 

“Home… I have to get home,” Dongmyeong repeated before a wave of anxiety seized his body, he sat up fast, a shout escaping him as he wrapped his arms around his middle, still sore. “My mom must be so worried, oh god-the storm came out of nowhere, what if they think I’m dead? How am I going to get home? I-.”

“Relax,” Kiwook said, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. “We’ll get you home safe and sound and then you can have your tearful reunion with your mom and everything will be just dandy. Your boat isn’t damaged, it can make the trip back to the cape no problem.”

Dongmyeong felt panic grip him like a vice, the memories of the roaring ocean in his ears all surging back at once, “I don’t think I can, I can’t do it.” 

Kiwook reached out and touched Dongmyeong’s leg, his skin was cold on the surface, “don’t worry too much, I’ll take you. Might be a little slower than using your sails, but it’ll get the job done I think.”

Dongmyeong still wasn’t sure, his hands shaking, “what if the storm comes back?” He thought about his sea, what was once his ocean and how it had betrayed him. 

“It won’t,” Kiwook said with a shake of his head and an outstretched hand, “we can pinky promise if it’ll make you feel better?” 

Dongmyeong nodded, reaching out and grasping Kiwook’s cool hand, linking their pinkies, “I’ll trust you.”

“That’s it,” Kiwook said with a nod and a smile, “maybe we can do some bonding exercises on our way. Start a two-man band, I’ll clap some shells together and you try to sing with your sandy vocal cords.” 

Dongmyeong managed a broken sort of laugh that made him hide his face behind his hands, “okay.”

“Okay?” Kiwook parroted, tilting his head, “let’s rest a while, and then we’ll get you home, I’m sure you’re ready to get back.” 

“I really am,” Dongmyeong said with a nod, still laughing softly despite his sore throat. “I’ve never wanted my bed more.” 

“Well, as payment for my toll services, when we get to the cape, you can bring me some snacks, and come visit me on the pier sometime, how’s that sound?”

Dongmyeong smiled, his chapped lips making it a little hard, “sounds good to me.”


End file.
